First day of a new season and for
Chesterfield FC, a new
division. Tranmere’s Prenton Park is
easy to find from the motorway and
seems to be on the border between
Prenton and Tranmere so maybe its
only by chance that the club isn’t named
Prenton Rovers and the ground
Tranmere Park!

There is a good pub right across the
road from the
turnstiles (named after the football
ground) where rival fans mingled
in a perfectly non-threatening
atmosphere. The stadium itself is does
not look that great from the outside,
being clad in blue corrugated
metal, but from the inside it is
impressive in an endearingly
higgledy-piggledy fashion.

Piecemeal development means all four
stands look very different from
one another and are different sizes as
well. The “home” end is,
frankly, a bit too big for the club’s
current status and was less than
half full. It dominates the rest of the
ground and personally I find it
a bit off-putting when an end stand is
bigger than the ones at the
sides so I’d say that this very large
stand is actually the least
attractive of the four.

The old Main Stand has a 1950s look and
is none the worse for that,
although the addition of different
coloured seats in some sections is
incongruous when the rest of the ground
is uniformly blue. Across the
pitch is the single-level Johnny King
Stand which looks comfy enough
and the Cowshed must be one of the best
away ends in the division, very
roomy with good access and a
decent-sized if rather spartan concourse
beneath.

Tranmere’s fans were surprisingly
quiet although it may just
have been that the noise from the away
end was drowning them out. There
was no tension though, between the two
sets of fans, which is always a
good thing. The game itself wasn’t bad
although Chesterfield’s defeat
to a goal deep into the second half was
a bit of a slap in the face. To
be fair, Tranmere deserved to win. Their
team tackled and closed down
well and were dangerous on the break
especially when their two central
midfielders were involved. The goal
resulted from opportunism; a quick
throw catching the Spireites defence on
the hop and Robbie Weir
finishing well.

After the match everyone got out with
the minimum of fuss, the stewards
were low-key and the home fans happy
just to enjoy the fact that they
had won with no desire to mix it with
anyone. Apart from the result it
was, all in all, a nice day out and a
good football-watching experience.